Fears Abound Along Turkish-Iraq Border

Published 7:00 pm, Tuesday, February 11, 2003

Nihat Burcin questions whether his flimsy Russian-made gas mask will protect him if Saddam Hussein attacks his hometown near the Iraqi border with chemical or biological weapons.

Some of his neighbors are planning to tie chickens outside their windows or put birds in cages outside as a first warning against a chemical weapons attack.

"If it dies suddenly, we will understand that there is an attack," said Burcin, who owns a small store in Cizre, a town near the Iraq border.

Along the border, there is panic that any war could lead the Iraqi ruler to lash out at Turkey, NATO's only Muslim member and an ally of the United States.

Many people fled the area in 1991 at the end of the Gulf War, when Saddam's troops crushed an Iraqi Kurdish uprising, sending hundreds of thousands fleeing across the freezing mountains that mark the border.

Now, amid an economic crisis, many people on the Turkish border say they don't have enough money to flee and are preparing for the worst.

"I don't think the government will distribute gas masks or chemical suits to us," said Idris Akpinar, a grocer. "The best thing they can do is to tell us beforehand to evacuate the area, but I don't have money to go anywhere either."

Burcin is worried that Iraq could use nerve or blister gases that enter the skin and are not blocked by masks.

"We're helpless if he uses such a thing," he said.

Other locals are stocking their basements with sacks of flour, sugar and water in case they have to seek shelter during a war. They're also sealing their windows with a thick, brown tape popularly called "Saddam tape" that many say will seal rooms and make them safe if there is a chemical attack.

Along the main road outside of Cizre, a town some 25 miles from the border, convoys carrying M-113 armored personnel carriers and M-60 and M-48 tanks rumble down the road as Turkey reinforces its soldiers at the border.

"We're openly going into war," lamented Ahmet Karaaslan, a grocer. "I don't want to live through a war."

Turkey has said it will send troops to northern Iraq if there is a war to prevent any flood of refugees.

Turks are overwhelmingly opposed to a war, but most political leaders believe the country has little choice but to back the United States, Turkey's most important ally.

On Wednesday, Turkey's Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis and Economy Minister Ali Babacan left for Washington to discuss plans to base tens of thousands of U.S. troops in Turkey and economic aid to cushion the impact of an Iraq war.

Washington had asked to send 80,000 troops to Turkey to open a northern front against Iraq, but Turkey wants that figure reduced reportedly to no more than 38,000.

The border area of southeastern Turkey is overwhelmingly Kurdish and many Turkish Kurds have relatives across the border. Turkey also fears that instability in northern Iraq could spread to southeastern Turkey.

Cizre was once at the center of Turkish Kurdish rebel fighting. The bullet holes that riddled walls just a few years ago have been covered up but Turkish soldiers still patrol the city streets.

And local Kurds still privately discuss the fight between Kurdish rebels and Turkish soldiers.

The rebel group, which last year changed its name from Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, to the Kurdistan Freedom and Democracy Congress, or KADEK, has warned that if Turkish troops attack their bases they will retaliate.

Mehmet Metiner, a political analyst in Istanbul, warned that the rebels, who declared a cease-fire following the 1999 capture of their leader Abdullah Ocalan, could be desperate enough to carry out suicide attacks.

The possibility of regime change in Baghdad, however, has also raised hopes for more normalcy in an area that was largely devastated by the fighting.

The end of border trade with Iraq was another huge blow to the area and many hope that a new government in Iraq would lead to a renewal of the trade.

"The border trade with Iraq is the lifeblood of this area," said Yasin Ali, an accountant. "I hope the war finishes quickly."